Rose, Guillaume

Rose, Guillaume, a French prelate, was born at Chaumont, about 1542. He was professor of grammar and rhetoric in the College of Navarre, but subsequently went to Paris, where his eloquent and incisive preaching gained for him a wide reputation. Becoming chaplain-in-ordinary to Henry III, he soon joined the Holy League, and in 1583 opposed himself to the king; but the break was only temporary. Rose was made headmaster of the College of Navarre, and in 1584 received the bishopric of Senlis. For some time he repressed the expression of any extreme views, but when he departed for Paris as member of the Council of the Union, he said publicly that the celestial palm was reserved for the members of the League when they had killed father and mother. Thereafter he was one of the fiercest preachers of his party, and in the contest between Mayenne and the Spanish he was an ardent partisan of the latter. He was member of the States-general in 1593, and rendered important service to the country in opposing the friends of the infanta of Spain, which was all the more remarkable considering his previous attitude towards the Spaniards. After the triumph of Henry IV, Rose took refuge in the convent of Val de Beaumont-sur-Oise, but by letters patent was allowed to retain his bishopric. Continuing his hostility to the king, he was in 1598 arrested and forced to pay a fine of one hundred livres d'or. Rose died at Senlis, March 10, 1602. The celebrated pamphlet entitled De Justa Republicoe Christianoe in Reges Impios Authoritate (Paris, 1590; Antwerp, 1592) has been attributed to Rose, but its authorship is uncertain. See Labitte, Predicateurs de la Ligue; De Thou, Historia; L'Estoil, Journal. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, s.v.